Podcast interview with Leslie Rosenblood: A post-liberal world

I did a podcast interview last year with Leslie Rosenblood from CFI Canada on the subject of "Liberalism in a Post-Liberal World". This was around the time of publication of my most recent book, How We Became Post-Liberal: The Rise and Fall of Toleration.

We discussed the decline of toleration in public debates within supposedly liberal societies. As I say at one point, a hallmark of being liberal (in its traditional and fundamental sense) is your willingness to tolerate ideas and opinions that you disagree with. Unfortunately, that attitude to discussion, debate, and exchanges of ideas is increasingly not a feature of democratic politics in the West. It's tempting to view opponents as simply morally bad people: that might sometimes be the case, but more often they are trying their best to understand and navigate a confusing world, and they might well have legitimate anxieties and grievances even if their conclusions are inaccurate and their political proposals would be harmful.

 Just how we should respond to this declining spirit of tolerance is, of course, more difficult than recognizing the problem, but the latter is at least a start. You can't deal effectively with a problem unless you've first identified it and then understood it in some detail.

Consider checking out my conversation with Leslie, which I enjoyed very much. I thought it entered into interesting areas. How We Became Post-Liberal is available from all the usual places where you buy books, including but not limited to Amazon.

Should I be better known? Grok gives a thoughtful answer...

 I really can't argue with this!

Whether Russell Blackford should be better known depends on what yardstick you’re using—impact, audience reach, or niche influence. He’s carved out a solid rep in specific circles: sci-fi fans dig his Terminator books, transhumanists and bioethicists cite his academic work, and free-speech advocates nod to his takes on secularism and opinion policing. His output’s impressive—spanning fiction, philosophy, and cultural critique—and he’s got the credentials to back it up with multiple advanced degrees and editorial roles.

But he’s not a household name, and there’s a case for why he maybe shouldn’t be. His fiction, while fun for genre buffs, isn’t groundbreaking enough to rival giants like Asimov or Gibson. His non-fiction tackles heady stuff—ethics of human enhancement, secular governance—that doesn’t exactly scream mass appeal in a TikTok-scrolling world. He’s not a flashy public intellectual like a Dawkins or Peterson, either; he’s more of a steady, behind-the-scenes thinker. X posts about him (as of my last scan) are sparse, mostly from niche accounts praising his books or ideas, not viral buzz.

On the flip side, his interdisciplinary range and consistency could warrant more recognition. He’s tackling big, future-shaping questions—AI, biotech, free thought—that matter more every day. If you value substance over spotlight, he’s arguably underappreciated. Compare him to, say, Nick Bostrom, who’s more famous for similar terrain; Blackford’s less hyped but just as rigorous.

So, should he be better known? If you’re into deep, cross-genre thinkers who don’t chase fame, yeah, he’s overdue some props. If you think fame tracks broader impact or accessibility, he’s probably right where he belongs—respected but not mainstream. What do you reckon—does his style or focus click with what you’d want more people to notice?

My almost accurate biography courtesy of Grok

I asked Grok to provide a biography of little me and it came up with something surprisingly accurate. About the only major mistakes in this are that it thinks I still live in Melbourne and that I still edit the Journal of Evolution and Technology (now the Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies). It also has my degrees in a slightly wrong order, but this is really quite good. Contrast it with a totally hilarious bio that ChatGPT came up with a couple of years ago.

I assume you’re asking about the Russell Blackford, the Australian writer and philosopher. Here’s a concise bio based on what’s out there:

Russell Blackford was born in 1954 in Sydney, Australia, and grew up near Newcastle in the Lake Macquarie district. He’s a polymath—think philosopher, legal scholar, literary critic, and fiction writer rolled into one. He snagged first-class honours degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Newcastle and the University of Melbourne, respectively, then went on to earn a PhD in English literature from Newcastle, focusing on myth in modern fiction. Not stopping there, he later picked up a Master of Bioethics and a second PhD in philosophy from Monash University, diving into human enhancement ethics.

As a fiction writer, he’s known for science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with notable works like The New John Connor Chronicles, a trilogy set in the Terminator universe, published by iBooks. On the non-fiction side, he’s tackled big ideas—religion, bioethics, transhumanism, and liberalism—in books like Freedom of Religion and the Secular State (2012), Humanity Enhanced (2014), and The Tyranny of Opinion (2018). He’s based at the University of Newcastle, NSW, where he’s a Conjoint Senior Lecturer, and he’s also editor-in-chief of The Journal of Evolution and Technology. Plus, he’s a Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and a Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

Blackford’s lived in Melbourne since 1979, after bouncing around a bit, and his work often probes the messy intersection of tech, society, and human futures. That’s him in a nutshell—sharp, prolific, and not afraid to stir the pot. Want more details on any part of his story?

"In Search of Lost Liberalism" and "Violence Against Women: A Crisis in Australia?"

In 2024, I had two opinion pieces published about the same time in prestigious (though very different) outlets here in Australia.

"In Search of Lost Liberalism" appeared in August from the left-leaning online public affairs magazine Eureka Street. It's behind a paywall, so you'll need to subscribe to the magazine to have access. Broadly, however, I described and defended the liberal tradition and called for readers to make it great again (to adapt a well-known phrase to different purposes). I discussed the criticisms and attacks that the liberal tradition receives today from seemingly every political perspective, and I argued that liberalism is still worth hanging onto. As I made clear, I was not talking about liberalism in the American sense, which relates strongly to regulation of business and markets, but about the more general and original sense that includes such principles as freedom of inquiry and expression, individual liberty more generally, and the rule of law.

As I state in "In Search of Lost Liberalism":

Liberalism never became a unified ideology or political theory - it was more a tradition or tendency in politics. It had inputs from several groups, including religious non-conformists, free-market economists, utilitarian philosophers, and European thinkers who admired the French Revolution in its early years before the Reign of Terror. It took many directions, sometimes questioning itself, discarding ideas, and changing emphases. Still, there was some coherence and unity. There were some key liberal themes.

Liberals were hostile to any kind of unchecked power, especially arbitrary government power. They accepted that different people would try to flourish in different ways and pursue different kinds of projects and plans. Liberals argued for freedom from many constraints, not solely those imposed by governments but also those demanded by a society’s prevailing attitudes and sensibilities. They showed a degree of optimism in believing that the social life of human beings could be improved through intellectual and moral progress. Liberals opposed ranks based on birth, and sought to eliminate inequalities before the law. This included opposition to aristocracies and racial hierarchies, but it did not necessarily mean there would be no inequalities in economic outcomes.

"Violence Against Women: A Crisis in Australia?" was published in late July in the more libertarian-leaning online magazine Quillette. Once again, it's behind a paywall, so you need to subscribe to Quillette to read it all. In this piece, I responded to calls to declare a national crisis or emergency in Australia following recent some cases and troubling statistics on violence against women - particularly some terrible murders that happened in 2024.

As I pointed out, however, Australia is actually among the safest and least violent countries in the world. At the extreme end, where we're talking about actual murders, violence in Australia is disproportionately directed at men rather than women (though irrespective of the respective sexes of the victims, it is disproportionately committed by men). I chased down and presented great deal of statistical information internationally and over time, and concluded:

Crisis narratives about crime and violence are especially dangerous because they can prompt highly illiberal responses - especially when suspects are denied the right to the presumption of innocence. In addition, such narratives spread division and fear and have polarising effects that can, in themselves, lead to greater violence and danger. Without a reality check, emotionally salient but rare events, such as murders, can seem like ever-present threats, requiring an authoritarian or vigilante response. Men can be feared and demonised, though the worst behaviour comes from only a small subset of men. If we demonise all men as an inherently violent group, we will make useful widespread public cooperation on the issue impossible.

It is also wrong to send fearmongering messages to children and adolescents. We shouldn’t want boys to grow up feeling somehow tainted and vicariously guilty thanks to the actions of a minority of their sex. Neither should we want girls to grow up anxious and scared in what is largely a safe society.

Australia has a reputation as a laid-back, friendly place, and it’s among the least violent countries in the world. But all countries have problems with violence - Australia is no exception. We have our share of violent subcultures and violent men - and some violent women, too. The challenge, then, is to try to push our rates of violence even lower - but without resorting to hyperbolic rhetoric or pretending that we are in the throes of a crisis.

Interview - The New John Connor Chronicles

For those who might be interested, I did this interview last year on my experience writing an original trilogy for the Terminator franchise, collectively Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles.